The present invention is directed to an ophthalmometer system, and more particularly to an ophthalmometer or keratometer and surgical microscope system for making corneal measurements during eye surgery.
Ophthalmometers or keratometers are used to make various corneal topology measurements on the cornea. Various keratometers exist in the art, and are described in various U.S. patents including U.S. Pat. No. 4,157,859 to Terry, U.S. Pat. No. 4,355,871 to Nevyas et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,407,572 to Humphrey, U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,254 to Humphrey, U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,648 to Feldon, U.S. Pat. No. 4,662,730 to Outwater and U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,715 to Richards.
For the most part, these keratometers require the surgeon to turn off microscope illumination of the cornea during surgery when the keratometer is to used. In some cases, the surgeon is further inconvenienced by having to insert a prism assembly when the keratometer is to be used. Then the procedures must be reversed if the surgeon wants to go back to regular illumination of the cornea for surgical operations.